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Unread 10-09-2001, 01:05 PM
Tim Murphy Tim Murphy is offline
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Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Fargo ND, USA
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Solan, there are three poems you can easily check out. The first is The Age of Anxiety, Auden's book-length poem in alliterative tetrameter. By Auden's standards, it's a failure, because the characters are unable to engage the reader. But keep in mind that A. knew Icelandic, OE, and in fact translated the Elder Edda in collaboration with Paul Taylor. Wilbur has two poems, "Lilacs" and "Junk."
Both in alliterative tets which follow the rule of the scop.

Finally here is a tiny poem of mine which does not follow the alliterative rule but rather uses assonance, internal rhyme, etc., to give the sonic framework which the ear demands to accentual tetrameter. The text is being printed in its dimeter half lines rather than its offset tets:

The Wanderer

There is no end
to a wanderer’s sorrow.
The wisdom of Erda
queried by Wotan,
the counsel of Ragna
sung in a saga
I’ll follow tomorrow—
tomorrow if ever—
for I am no friend
of Volsung or Vala.

To view Paul Deane's site, just type in "Forgotten Ground Regained." --Tim

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